The Global Drifter Program

Information

Follow the links at left for more information about the instrument, the Global Drifter Program, and the drifter bibliography. To track a particular drifter, see Drifter Links.

News

Database has been updated through June 30, 2009. Download data

January 2010:

Movies illustrating the Evolution of the Global Drifter Array in five year intervals, since 1979 are available at:

http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/dac/dac_animations.html

June 2009:

Surface drifter data was used to help locate wreckage from Air France flight #447. Shortly after the disappearance of Air France flight 447 on May 31, 2009 and the discovery of debris on June 2, the Drifter Data Assembly Center, in Miami, Florida, was contacted by the Hydrographic Center of the Brazilian Navy and French researchers from IFREMER, for in situ, near real time data from surface drifters in the area where the plane disappeared while crossing the Atlantic ocean in route from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Paris, France. Surface drifter trajectories are useful to estimate how far currents carried the floating debris from the crash site, where heavier equipment such as the "black box" recorders sank. Several drifters were indentified in the area, and to further populate the area, and obtain higher resolution current measurements,to help the search teams locate additional debris and bodies, the Hydrographic Center of the Brazilian Navy deployed five more drifters near the area of the crash on June 14. This active collaboration with the Brazilian Navy and IFREMER follows a long history of cooperation between AOML and international partners. These drifter data are available in real time along with currents derived from altimetry sea height anomaly fields at: http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/trinanes/xbt.html http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/dataphod/work/trinanes/INTERFACE/index.html

September 2008:

On September 11, 2008, an array of 9 drifters (5 minimets and 4 ADOS) was deployed in front of hurricane Ike before it landed in Houston. All drifters survived deployment and successfully transmitted their data on the Global Telecommunications System (GTS). Blue dots and black track lines show trajectories of drifters deployed in front of Gustav on August 31, 2008. Data available at:
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/trinanes/xbt.html select "hurricane buoys" for "data set".

August 2008:

On August 31, 2008, an array of 12 drifters (6 minimets and 6 ADOS) was deployed in front of hurricane Gustav before it landed in Louisiana. All drifters survived deployment and successfully transmitted their data on the Global Telecommunications System (GTS). Data available at:
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/trinanes/xbt.html select "hurricane buoys" for "data set".

June 2008:

In conjunction with the US Navy and NOAA, the United States Coast Guard Cutter (USCGC) DALLAS is performing various training sessions with West African countries as follow-up to the African Partnership Station (APS), which took place in the Gulf of Guinea in early 2008. As was performed by the HSV-2 SWIFT, the USCGC DALLAS is also deploying drifting buoys in the region as part of climate research and forecasting. In total, the USCGC DALLAS will deploy 10 SVP type drifters, which will help build upon the existing data set in the region.
(Click on the figure to see a larger map).

March 25, 2008:

Two new columns have been added to the"Details of All Drifters in the DAC database" (dirall.html) file, to show the ending latitude and ending longitude of each drifter in the database.

January 2008:

The US Navy is presently undergoing a two-ship six month training capacity building exercise in the Gulf of Guinea. AOML, as part of this effort, is providing drifting buoys, training materials and a trainer for this component of the Navy effort. This figure shows tracks of drifters deployed by the HSV 2 Swift. On each track, the star denotes deployment position, the circle shows last transmission position (no circle means, buoy is more than 3 days behind), and the color shows sea surface temperatures in degrees C. (Click on the figure to see a larger map).
During March 11-14, Mr. Shaun Dolk from the Driter Operations Center will be in Ghana to provide drifter, float and XBT training to regional researchers.

August 2007:

On August 19, 2007, an array of 12 hurricane drifters (4 minimets and 8 ADOS) was deployed in the path of category 4 hurricane Dean approaching the Yucatan Peninsula, from a C-130J "Hurricane Hunter" plane. All drifters survived deployment and successfully transmitted their data on the Global Telecomunication System (GTS). Data available at:
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/trinanes/xbt.html select "hurricane buoys" for "data set".

February 2007:

Drifter 36256 (Drifter # 1250 that completed the first component of the Global Observing System deployed on Sep 18, 2005, was successfully recovered on Feb 21, 2007, at Brest, France, after a 521 days journey through the Atlantic ocean. Both SST and Barometric pressure sensors were reporting good data until its recovery.

Rick Lumpkin is participating in a CLIMODE cruise, aboard the R/V Knorr (US Navy-owned ship operated by WHOI for ocean research community), deploying 30 drifters (from a total of 60 to de deployed) in the North Atlantic. Three of these drifters are part of the Adopt-a-Drifter Program (ADP), established by NOAA/OCO for teachers K-12 from US and foreign countries to provide them with tools to integrate ocean observing system data into their curriculums.

Limnology and Oceanography is hosting a Special Issue on scientific results obtained from autonomous and Lagrangian platforms and sensors (ALPS). All publication costs for this Special Issue will be covered, including Free Access Publication (the entire issue will be freely available online to maximize dissemination). We anticipate publication of 20-25 papers in this Special Issue.

Papers are invited from all disciplines in aquatic sciences. Interdisciplinary studies enabled by ALPS and numerical modeling studies using ALPS are also welcome.

For more details, include abstract and submission deadlines, see: http://aslo.org/lo/alps.html

October 16-20, 2006:

Mayra Pazos and Rick Lumpkin (NOAA/AOML) attended the twenty-second Data Buoy Cooperation Panel (DBCP) DBCP meeting in La Jolla, California. Mayra presented the results of the 2006 drifter performance ("ADB") study, while Rick presented the 2006 Global Drifter Program report and a scientific talk about drifter observations in the path of Category 5 hurricane Rita. A presentation prepared by Jessica Redman on the results of the re-evaluation of the drogue status was also presented by Bill Scuba (SIO) at the meeting.

May 1, 2006:

The Drifter Data Assembly Center recently underwent a reevaluation of all drogue status on drifters deployed since 1998. Due to this, there has been a change in the drogue off date of several drifters. This either lengthened or shortened the life of the drogue depending on the new date chosen. The current database updated through January 2006 has the correct drogue dates. For more information, contact Jessica Redman or Mayra Pazos

October 17-21, 2005:

Craig Engler and Mayra Pazos (NOAA/AOML) attended the twenty-first session of the Data Bouy Cooperation Panel DBCP jointly hosted by the National Meteorological Services and Naval Hydrographical Services in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 17-21 October, 2005. They gave a presentation on a comparison study of eight clusters of drifters, each from a different manufacturer, deployed at the same time and location in the Atlantic ocean. Download presentation (pdf).

September 25, 2005:

Archbishop and Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu and Captain Jeremy Kingston of the VOS ship MV Explorer deploy a drifter off the coast of South Africa. Archbiship Tutu was participating in the Semester At Sea program aboard the Explorer, which serves as a floating university campus. Every semester more than 600 students sail aboard the Explorer for a learning experience that circumnavigates the globe. Two classes, one from the Congressional School of Virginia and the other from Elsies River High School in South Africa, adopted the drifter and will be tracking its passage through the South Atlantic.

September 18, 2005:

Deployment of drifter number 1250 of the Global Drifter Array, the first fully realized component of the Global Ocean Observing System.